Raw cotton shrinks. Depending on the weave it can lose three to seven percent of its length the first time it meets hot water — which is how a size that fit in the shop stops fitting after a weekend.
What pre-washing does
We wash and dry the fabric before it is ever cut. The shrink happens on our floor rather than in your machine, and the size on the label stays the size in the drawer.
The side effect we like
Pre-washed cotton is softer on day one. It also takes dye more evenly, so the colour you see in the photograph is closer to the colour that arrives.
The cost
It adds roughly nine percent to our fabric bill and two days to production. We have decided repeatedly that it is worth both.